Today we began with
a short clean-up at Schutes
Branch Recreation Area on Old Hickory Lake in Mt.
Juliet, Scenic Tennessee's home base. The area is supervised by the
Army Corps of Engineers which oversees a whopping 40
water recreations areas in the state. These areas are
usually exquisitely maintained by the Corps, have excellent
campgrounds and are generally a tremendous resource for travelers on
a budget wanting to enjoy the great outdoors. Between our state parks
system, our national parks, our state and national forests, TVA
recreation areas and the Army Corps recreation areas, our state is
truly blessed with a bountiful array of outdoor recreational
opportunities.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers display.

Inclement weather
abbreviated the litter clean-up today, but an excellent local inmate
crew from the Wilson County Sheriff's department still managed to
collect a lot of trash. In this case, the litter was mostly along the
shoreline of the lake and among the guilty parties were fishermen, as
many of the items were plastic night crawlers containers, fishing
line and pieces of styrofoam coolers. One would expect fishermen to
be better stewards of the environment! Also dis-heartening was the
large percentage of recyclable materials that were found, aluminum
in particular, which is the most valuable recyclable commodity.

Later on in
Nashville, we journeyed to Fond
Object, a vintage record store in East
Nashville. They have a great backyard space and there
we filmed the all-girl garage rock band Churchyard.
East Nashville reminds me of Atlanta's Little Five Points with its
young, energetic, artsy scene.

Churchyard at Fond Object.

It is a stark
contrast to the cowboy hat and boots country music scene that I have
always envisioned dominates Nashville culture. That is probably a
naïve view I have of the city, having only visited sporadically over
the years. I will say, however, each time I visit Nashville I am more
impressed with its diversity. Having lived in some major cities
during my life including Miami, LA and Washington DC, Nashville
certainly has all the hallmarks of a big city, but seemingly without
as many of the big city issues plaguing other cities. If I ever
decided to re-locate back to a major city, Nashville would be high on
my list.